The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”) recently issued an Order approving a request by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) to defer the implementation of several Reliability Standards scheduled to take effect later this year. This action, along with others discussed in an earlier post here, are the latest measures approved by FERC that demonstrate the Commission’s intent to exercise discretion in easing reliability compliance burdens in light of the national emergency related to the coronavirus pandemic.… More

On April 14, 2020, the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (“DOER”) filed emergency regulations for the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (“SMART”) Program. A redline showing the additions to 225 CMR 20 is available here: MA DOER 225 CMR 20 Emergency Regulations 4.15.20. As emergency regulations, these changes went into effect Wednesday, April 16, 2020. DOER plans to hold a virtual public hearing on the new regulations on May 22,… More

On April 2, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or “Commission”) Chairman Neil Chatterjee announced additional steps the Commission is taking as regulated entities struggle to balance ensuring continued operations on one hand and regulatory compliance burdens on the other during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Chatterjee, while “the Commission will continue its market surveillance efforts to protect market participants and consumers from the effects of anti­competitive behavior,” the Commission will exercise prosecutorial discretion in addressing events that arise during the pandemic and “will not second-guess the good faith actions that regulated entities take in the face of this emergency.”

With respect to enforcement actions related to operations occurring during the pandemic period,… More

On March 27, 2020, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”), the third and by far the largest stimulus package passed by Congress to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak. As discussed in our main alert, the $2 trillion CARES Act amounts to what will be the biggest economic stimulus package in American history.

A number of specific provisions in the Act are aimed at energy infrastructure,… More

On March 19, 2020, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued its Memorandum on Identification of Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers During COVID-19 Response (“Memo”). The Memo identifies workers who conduct “a range of operations and services that are essential to continued critical infrastructure viability” and who support a wide-spectrum of industries such as medical and healthcare, telecommunications, information technology systems, defense, and energy.

This week, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office released a white paper documenting the results of a symposium convened last fall to discuss how electric markets should be organized to manage the transition to a “low / no-carbon future.” Policy wonks, such as myself, will find it fascinating reading, though it is moderately dense stuff.

Seriously, it is important to acknowledge that these issues are as complex as they are important. Simply establishing a zero carbon goal for 2050 – or earlier – isn’t going to get us there and keep the lights on at the same time. And the more we commit to electrifying our transportation systems and our buildings, the more important electric market design is going to be.

These issues really are too complicated to summarize in a blog post, so I’ll settle for highlighting what was apparently broad agreement on a number of key points:

“A real-time energy market, providing price signals identifying the instantaneous value of energy, should be a cornerstone of any decarbonized end state wholesale market design.”

“There was nearly unanimous support for some form of regional carbon pricing that is priced to help create incentives for compliance with the region’s clean energy goals.” (And that’s economy-wide carbon pricing.)

The current Forward Capacity Market “is unsuited to the needs of ensuring resource adequacy in the decarbonized end state.”

The region, i.e., ISO-NE, should implement more effective scarcity pricing.

There’s much more in here, and a lot more to do before real consensus is reached on specific approaches. However, if you believe we need to decarbonize our economy, I suggest you get this report and read it. Why?

On February 14, 2020, the State of Maine Public Utilities Commission (the Commission), acting pursuant to the Act To Reform Maine’s Renewable Portfolio Standard, P.L. 2019, Chapter 477 (the Act), issued a Request for Proposal (the RFP) in order to procure an amount of energy or Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) from Class 1A Resources of at least 7%, but not more than 10%, of retail electricity sales in the State of Maine during calendar year 2018. … More

Security experts nationwide warn that the United States should expect serious cyberattacks from Iran in the next few months. The anticipated attacks, retaliation for United States’ killing of Major General Qasem Soleimani, are likely to include as targets oil refineries and other energy infrastructure. The specific targets, and whether the attacks will be state-sponsored and strategic or carried out by individuals or smaller groups,… More

The electric power grid is subject to escalating threats of attack by foreign adversaries and individual bad actors. While no U.S. utilities have been seriously compromised to date, in 2015, Ukraine’s electric grid was hit by a cyberattack that led to a lengthy blackout affecting approximately 250,000 people. There is growing recognition that cyberattacks have the potential to be even more malicious, disrupting increasingly digitized critical energy infrastructure. … More

Energy storage will play a key role in achieving New York State’s bold climate vision, set in motion in June 2019 with the passage of The Climate Leadership and Clean Energy Protection Act, the nation-leading law which calls for economy-wide emissions reductions to reach net-zero by 2050,100% clean electricity by 2040, and 70% renewable electricity by 2030. The Act also codifies an existing Cuomo Administration commitment to deploy 3,000 MW of energy storage by 2030.

NECEC’s Emerging Trends Series event, sponsored by Foley Hoag, explores elements of the new legislation, with a focus on how the private and public sectors can partner to create and sustain a vibrant market for a broad set of storage technologies. The event begins with a fireside chat between Foley Hoag’s Mark Barnett and NYSERDA’s Alicia Barton to discuss the new legislation and hear how New York plans to execute on its goals. A panel of energy storage industry leaders then dig deeper on the energy storage elements of the bill.

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Blog Editors

Kevin Conroy is a partner in Foley Hoag’s Administrative Law Department, with a primary focus on regulatory and government investigations. He co-chairs the firm’s Energy and Cleantech and State Attorney General groups...More

As Chair of Foley Hoag's Taxation Group, Nicola Lemay advises clients in all stages of their business development. She represents clients in the tax aspects of structuring and financing renewable energy projects... More